This invention relates to a liquid fuel combustion apparatus and in particular to a liquid fuel combustion apparatus in which an air supply and discharge are forcedly effected.
Recently, various pot-type liquid fuel combustion apparatus of the forced air-supply/discharge variety have been developed. In these apparatus, an air supply means, such as blower, supply air for combustion into a fuel vapor after causing liquid fuel, such as kerosene, stored in a liquid reservoir to be heated by the ignition of an ignition heater to produce a fuel vapor. And a mixed gas which consists of the combustion air and the fuel vapor is burned in a blue flame.
A portion of the liquid fuel combustion apparatus includes a combustion cylinder having a circumferential wall with a number of air holes and an end wall by which one end of the combustion cylinder is blocked. The apparatus also have a housing arranged apart from the outer surface of the combustion cylinder to surround the outer surface of the combustion cylinder. The housing includes and end wall which is disposed opposite to the end wall of the combustion cylinder.
With the liquid fuel combustion apparatus, the air supply means for supplying the combustion air is fixed to the end wall of the housing to provide a rigid unit. The air supply means supplies the combustion air, through a small opening on the end wall of the housing, into a space between the inner surface of the housing and the outer surface of the combustion cylinder. For this reason, the ignition heater and the other communication component parts for permitting communication between an inside of the combustion cylinder and an outside of the housing have to be arranged on the circumferential wall of the combustion cylinder. It is necessary in such arrangement to form a plurality of openings for inserting the ignition heater and the other communication parts on the circumferential wall of the housing. The longer the circumferential length of the openings, the greater the difficulties encountered in sealing said openings. Since the opening for inserting the heater have the longest circumferential length, the seal member applied to the opening for the heater is naturally complicated. In the mounting of the seal member, a cumbersome operation is required. The openings must, after the ignition heater and the other communication component parts are inserted, be hermetically sealed by a seal member so that any combustion air may not leak out. Where the air supply means is constituted of a high static pressure type blower utilizing a turbo-fan, it is necessary to further enhance the extent of sealing of the sealing member with respect to the cutout and thus a structure of the seal member becomes complicated. The complexity of the structure of the seal member and the cumbersomeness of assembling result in a high cost of the combustion apparatus as a whole.
Since the air supply means is rigidly fixed to the housing such that it provides a rigid unit, the total axial length of the air supply means and housing becomes of necessity longer. Where the combustion apparatus is used in combination with another device, the manner in which it is combined with the other device is restricted, it being difficult to provide a compact structure.